Lucille Ward Movies

Paramount's "Henry Aldrich" series came to a quiet conclusion with 1944's Henry Aldrich's Little Secret. The titular secret is a baby, the son of woebegone Helen Martin (Ann Doran). Because her husband is in jail, Helen has been adjudged an unfit mother by the local welfare board, headed by the father of our hero Henry Aldrich (Jimmy Lydon). Taking pity on Helen, Henry hides the baby in his own home while Helen leaves town to prove her husband's innocence. The finale finds Henry lampooning Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with a comic-pathetic filibuster on behalf of poor Helen. Way at the bottom of the cast list is Noel Neill, TV's future Lois Lane. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Best remembered as the film in which 17-year-old Deanna Durbin receives her first screen kiss, First Love is a modernized variation of the Cinderella legend (there's even "six white mice" in the form of a sextet of motorcycle policemen!). The film casts Durbin as Constance Harding, the poor relation of wealthy tycoon James Clinton (Eugene Pallette). When she comes to live with the Clinton family, she runs headfirst into her eccentric, social-climbing aunt Grace (Leatrice Joy) and her nasty, nightclub-hopping cousin Barbara (Helen Parrish); James himself rather likes the girl, but most his attention is directed towards dealing with his monumentally lazy son Walter (Lewis Howard in a comic turn). Left behind on the night of a fancy society ball, Constance is championed by the household servants, who provide her with a gorgeous gown and transportation to the event. She meets her Prince Charming in the form of likeable socialite Ted Drake (Robert Stack in his film debut)- but, just after the stroke of midnight, leaves her slipper behind. Later that night, the hateful Barbara convinces Constance that Ted was only toying with her emotions. Sorrowfully, Constance decides to return to school and bury herself in her studies, only to be dissuaded by her head teacher (Kathleen Howard), who made the same mistake herself many years before. Naturally there's a happy ending, with time to spare for Durbin to sing five numbers, including the Puccini-inspired aria "One Fine Day". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Katharine Hepburn's association with RKO Radio Pictures came to an abrupt end when she refused to star in the studio's adaptation of Kate Douglas Wiggins' sentimental novel Mother Carey's Chickens. Hepburn was replaced by musical-comedy favorite Ruby Keeler, who though woefully miscast did her best to please. The story proper gets under way when Mr. Carey (Ralph Morgan) is killed in the Spanish American War, leaving his wife (Fay Bainter), his daughters Kitty (Keeler) and Nancy (Anne Shirley) and his young son Peter (Donnie Dunigan) to fend for themselves without a penny to their name. When Mrs. Carey is forced to put up the family's new house for sale, her daughters try to scare off potential buyers by claiming that the domicile is haunted. Thankfully, the Careys manage to find a source of income that will enable them to remain in their home, "ghosts" and all. Even more thankfully, the daughters find suitable mates in the form of Ralph (James Ellison) and Tom (Frank Albertson). With so much sugary sweetness, Walter Brennan's portrayal of the family's curmudgeonly benefactor comes as a decided relief. The film's sentimental theme music was later heard during the newsreel sequence of Citizen Kane, where it fit surprisingly well. Mother Carey's Chickens was remade by Disney as Summer Magic in 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Magazine publisher Clark Gable is happily married to Myrna Loy. Clark's devoted, super-efficient secretary Jean Harlow may have once harbored a secret desire for her boss, but she's perfectly content with boyfriend James Stewart. Accompanying Gable on a crucial business trip, Jean answers the phone in her boss' suite. Myrna, on the other end of the line, misunderstands, thereby setting the stage for a series of subsequent misunderstandings. As one can see, nothing much really happens in Wife vs. Secretary. The film is a vehicle in every sense of the word, totally reliant on the appeal of its stars. But it works beautifully, and remains as entertaining now as it did sixty years ago. One film historian has wondered what Wife vs. Secretary would have looked like had it been made before the imposition of the production code: would Jean have really had an affair with Clark, thereby giving Myrna something to really worry about? No matter; while it may have been racier, it's not likely the film could have been any more entertaining than it already is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

What would such second-echelon studios as Republic have done without the popular "rural" novels of Gene Stratton-Porter? This adaptation of Stratton-Porter's The Harvester stars Alice Brady in a rare dramatic role as Mrs. Biddle, the domineering matriarch of a farming family. Hoping to secure the future happiness of her daughter Thelma (Joyce Compton), Mrs. B practically ropes and hog-ties eligible bachelor David Langston (Russell Hardie). But it's a bad match, as David discovers when he falls in love with winsome Ruth Jameson (Ann Rutherford). The Harvester was treated as a prestige production by Republic, who accordingly gave the film as close to an "A" treatment as economically possible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A naval officer gets more than he bargained for when he adopts a recently orphaned young boy, the son of his late best friends. Despite the resistance of the lad's surviving relatives, who worry that growing in the Navy will be hard on the boy, the officer loves and takes good care of the boy. At least he does until the child is abducted by a gangster who has mistaken him for his long-lost boy. Fortunately for the young fellow, the officer rallies the entire Navy and comes to the rescue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The agent of the title is George Brent, a journalist sent by the Government to get the goods on a crime syndicate. Brent befriends Bette Davis, bookkeeper for suspected crime boss Ricardo Cortez. Bette's cooperation nearly costs her life, but both she and Brent manage a tricky escape during a final shoot-out. The IRS busts Cortez' gang on income tax evasion: Can you say "Al Capone"? Special Agent was remade in 1940 as Gambling on the High Seas, with Wayne Morris and Jane Wyman in the leading roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This tragic melodrama is a remake of Griffith's 1920 film, Way Down East. The story centers upon a starving, impoverished gamin who lost everything after a wicked millionaire tricked her into a marriage and impregnated her. The baby doesn't survive the ordeal and the poor girl ends up sheltered by a puritanical farm family. While there, she falls in love with the son. Unfortunately, as soon as they learn of her checkered past, the woman is tossed out. The distraught young woman is trying to cross a frozen river when a sudden thaw strikes, stranding her upon the treacherous floes. As they drift inexorably towards a deadly waterfall, her lover tries to save her. Unfortunately he cannot, and as the film ends, she is seen tumbling over the falls to certain doom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The title tells all in the independently produced romantic drama Marriage on Approval. Set just before the repeal of Prohibition, the story concerns a young man (Donald Dillaway) who, while stewed to the gills, marries the equally besotted heroine (Barbara Kent). Upon sobering up, the hasty bridegroom realizes that, not only has his marriage been consummated, but the girl isn't even aware that she is married. He decides to court her anew to see if she is a worthy missus, but in the end it is she who decides to give the union a chance. This forgotten little item is based on an equally obscure novel by Priscilla Wayne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This weepie, adapted from a play by Philip Dunning and George Abbott, is a vehicle for Ruth Chatterton as the titular Lilly. Her sufferings begin when she marries a man who later turns out to be a bigamist. She has their baby but marries another man so the child can have a father. The new husband is alcoholic and so Lilly falls in love with someone else, but when her husband breaks his back protecting her, she elects to stay with him. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

Barbara Stanwyck, displayed in all her pre-Code glory, once again plays "damaged goods" in Warner Bros.' The Purchase Price. Hard-boiled nightclub singer Joan Gordon (Stanwyck) gets fed up being the kept woman of her married boss, bootlegger Ed Fields (Lyle Talbot). Fleeing New York City, she ends up in North Dakota as the mail-order bride of wheat farmer Jim Gilson (George Brent). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The delightful Winnie Lightner was afforded her own movie vehicle in Side Show. Lightner stars as Pat, one of several members of a traveling carnival troupe managed by the eternally besotted Colonel Gowdy (Guy Kibbee). A Jill-of-all-trades, Pat does everything from high-diving to hula dancing, with time left over for a romance with meek-and-mild Sidney (Charles Butterworth), a man incapable of uttering an intelligent remark. There are moments of melodrama and pathos -- especially when Pat tries to save her younger sister, Irene (Evelyn Knapp), from a lecherous carny barker -- but comedy predominates throughout, culminating in a slapstick big-top finale. Unseen for many years, Side Show was resuscitated in the early '90s by the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The best of comic actor Reginald Denny's silent vehicles, Skinner's Dress Suit is a surprising contemporary piece about status-seeking. Denny is an office worker whose wife Laura LaPlante hectors him into asking for a raise. Not only does Denny get the extra dough, but he's asked to take a cut in salary. Nonetheless, he tells LaPlante that he's gotten the increase, whereupon she delightedly makes plans to spend several hundred dollars on home and wardrobe improvements. Denny is fitted out with a new dress suit, which makes him a social success--and obliges him to stay one step ahead of the tailor whenever he's behind in his payments. Just when it appears as though Denny will be swamped in debt, a series of cute coincidences transform him into his office's most valued employee. This second film adaptation of Henry Irving Dodge's novel Skinner's Dress Suit is a vast improvement upon the 1917 filming, with a peppy Charleston sequence thrown in as a bonus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide